by USA TODAY Sports Staff, USA TODAY

by USA TODAY Sports Staff, USA TODAY

Louisville men's basketball coach Rick Pitino spoke Monday about the status of injured guard Kevin Ware on a conference call wit the four coaches whose teams will be competing in the Final Four this week. The following is an excerpt of the transcript in which Pitino speaks about Ware and the player's health and status.

Q. Rick, I was wondering if you could give us an update, did you get to go by and visit with Kevin this morning?

A. I did. I visited with him last night. I was there when he came out of surgery. He was very groggy. This morning he's terrific. He's in great spirits. He got some phone calls from Joe Theismann, who went through the same type of injury. A lot of really positive calls that are making him feel good.

He's up and about. He's on crutches walking. They want his blood flowing. The only thing they're concerned about at this point in the next 48 hours, because the bone comes out of the skin, they're concerned of a chance of infection. If no infection takes place, he'll be very excited. It will be a long recovery, but we expect him to make a full recovery in a matter of time. It will take lengthy time, but we expect him to make a full recovery. He'll be with us in Atlanta.

Q. Can you gauge, was he surprised at all the outreach that has come about? Have you been surprised, as well?

A. Well, I think it was such a tough thing to look at. I think you witnessed all the players' emotions who had a look at it. It was pretty gruesome and pretty difficult to handle at that time.

He'd have to speak for himself which he probably will do on Wednesday.

Q. Has Kevin's family been able to get to him yet, and how are they holding up?

A. They arrived this morning. When I was there, they came in. His mom, Lisa, and her husband, Wes, they're there. Kevin's girlfriend stayed overnight.

Kevin had a good night. He's not in a whole lot of pain. I know right before the surgery, when he was able to watch the players at the press conference, the nurses and doctors told me that was the first time he broke down and cried, when the players were talking about him.

He went into surgery. Now he's in very good spirits and anxious to get out of the hospital and get back with the guys.

Q. Do you have an idea for a timetable for the hospital?

A. As long as nothing happens infection-wise, we expect him to come home tomorrow to Louisville. We're going to leave Wednesday night. Kevin will be with us. As you know, he is from Atlanta. He gets to go home and be with his family and be with us on the bench.

Q. Can you share a little bit about what the night was like for you, how long you were in the hospital, what did you talk to Kevin about?

A. Kevin was really groggy. When you come out of surgery, groggy. Gave him a hug, spent a little time with him. He was a little in and out. Told me he was going to be great.

I really didn't sleep too much just from the highs and lows of that game. My son and I just stayed up for two, three hours and talked. We went to bed about 1:30, got up about 5. Got Kevin something to eat about 11, spent a couple hours with him. Now we're in the car on the way back to Louisville.

Q. I was wondering, what was Kevin's reaction to you bringing the trophy to him in the hospital?

A. He was real excited about it. I said to him, You want me to bring it back or stay with you? He said, It's staying with me. I said, All right, just make sure you don't lose it.

He's very excited.

But, you know, the sight of it was very difficult. But in all my years of coaching, which is probably too long, I've never seen someone just keep yelling to the players. I had to bring them all over, listen to him. He said, Just win the basketball game, I'll be fine, and get me home to Atlanta. He kept repeating it over and over. That was the only words coming out of his mouth to the players: Just win the game. He kept repeating it over and over.

That was on my mind all night, how valiant he was with that type of injury.

Q. You mentioned today is your day off. Do you feel you need it after the emotions of yesterday?

A. Well, the players definitely need it. I didn't need to do a whole lot. I need to watch film, along with the staff. But they definitely need it. When you win the Big East tournament, you play in an emotional background, then you have to play this death bracket, they're tired right now mentally and physically. Emotionally it was very difficult. If it wasn't for Kevin, I don't know if we could have got through last night.

Q. In basketball you really never expect to have to make a call to a parent like that for an injury like that. Was that something that even took more out of you than you thought? What was that whole process like?

A. Well, I think all the coaches, watching so much film, up all night, by the time you get to an Elite Eight game, you're really kind of spent, you're moving on adrenaline.

Kevin, well, it was right in front of me. I literally went to help him up. As I looked down to help him up, I witnessed what happened. He didn't see it. Then he looked down. Both of our eyes caught the injury. That's when we all started looking and just felt emotionally distraught.

That being said, I went up to Mike and told him what happened. The referee said, "Do you want to warm up?" Mike said to me, "I think you're better off just getting out there and playing." That speaks volumes to what type of guy he is.

Q. Did you have to call his parents at all?

A. Well, immediately I said to Fred, get Lisa out of the stands. I thought she was at the game, but she wasn't. She was waiting back home. We got ahold of his mom. I got ahold of her, He's going to be fine. She just needed to see him this morning. She was crying all night. Once she gave him a hug this morning, she was fine. Everything is good right now.

Q. Did the doctors have any sense that there was a preexisting condition that might have caused this? Can you give us a sense of what the ripple effect is strategically, how you're going to use your manpower without Kevin?

A. No, there's nothing prior. What happens with this type of injury, basically he got up in the air and he landed and basically his leg went one way and his shoe went another and the bone split. There's no preexisting thing that makes it do that.

As far as strategy is concerned, I'm going to work on Wichita State. Kevin really, really hurts our basketball team not being there because we were short on backcourt substitutions. Our fourth guard is a walk-on, Tim Henderson. As you all watched, Kevin has great speed and length. He was playing the best basketball. Now you don't have any backcourt rotations. You only have two backcourt players, Russ Smith and Peyton Siva. You can't play them all those minutes.

So Tim Henderson is going to have to step up. Probably going to move Luke Hancock into the backcourt a little bit. Maybe we'll move Wayne Blackshear defensively into the backcourt, apply some pressure. We're just going to have to mix up. We have a lot of front-court depth, but we don't have a lot of back-court depth. That's pretty much it.

We know we're playing a great basketball team in Wichita State, so we'll just have to see how deep they are in the backcourt. If they're deep, we'll have to make some adjustments.